NOooooooooooooo!
Eamonn was back in good form and had us go through You’ve Got Friend. All was going well until we reached bar 20 ‘…. ‘You just call out my name…..’ and some sang along with the tune. A wise person once said, if you're not singing the tune make the part your singing, your tune. Hope this makes sense.
To find the right note, listen to the Sops singing ‘even your darkest night’ and ‘night’ is your note.
‘….take your soul if you let them’ is another harmony. Interestingly, the Tennessee legislature in February 1850 with regards, to a woman’s right to own property came to the conclusion that “women have no souls” and therefore “no right to own property.”Hmmmm!
This seemed to be a running theme tonight. They were told many times, ’You are NOT on the tune!’
We are a choir and sing in harmony otherwise it would just be a karaoke sing along!
It may be a good idea to mark your music score when you are singing the tune and distinguish it from when you are singing the harmony.
Sop 1s watch out for the high note on ‘Yes, I will’ and bounce off the ‘yes’ and don’t forget to smile!
At the very end everyone ensure you sing ‘You’ve got a friend’ with a ‘v’ sound and a strong ‘d’ on friend. Eamonn doesn’t want it to sound like a bleating lamb!
The Rose was next. This the new 2024 version, which is nearly the same as the previous one, but with a different ending. Therefore, it should have been fairly straightforward. Famous last words!
Sops start us off and to stop it sounding mushy, they have, unusually, been given permission to breathe!
The phrases should be chopped, so a small breath can be taken between each one
e.g. Lies the seed/that with the sun’s love/in the spring/becomes the rose.
When we all sing in harmony at the point of ‘When the night has been too lonely….’ It sounds like a glorious choir!
Ensure all the ends of the phrases are strong with a clear ‘t’ on ‘night’, ‘d’ on ‘road, ‘ng’ on ‘long and ‘strong’
Joshua was next based on the story of Joshua in the Bible. 'Fit' represents a way of saying 'fought'. The song tells how Joshua captured the city of Jericho when he ordered the Israelites to blow trumpets until the walls fell down. Certainly not karaoke.
In our version, when the walls came tumblin’ down’, keep ‘down’ very short and sing ‘like good old ‘Josh – wah’.
Make page 4 very quiet and then build up to the battle. This song is about light and shade and quiet and loud.
It was very clear tonight that homework needs to be done. Learning on the night is good, but to retain the knowledge, it is important to practise at home.
Just a little each day will embed it in your mind; specially for the basses who do NOT have the tune most of the time.
We are a great choir and sing beautifully in harmony.
Trillers on a Perch
Sue Jensen - Visit Art Deco style “Borough Market“ opened in 1851 - a historic and high quality market.
Open 6 days a week but I went on a Saturday (9.00 to 5.00). There was a real buzz.
Easy to get there - London Bridge Tube & follow the people …
Go with an appetite & carrier bags - lots of sampling and masses of choice. Tempted to buy everything !!
You can also book Official Tours - See their website.
Afterwards, it’s a short walk to Southwark Cathedral, which is fascinating.
Borough Market in 1872 (Gustave Dore)
Busy as ever. Nothing changes.
Or another take. We are what we do. Success is not an act but a habit. Aristotle
A quick lesson in our warm up tonight with counting 1 to 8 up and down the scale. Second time round we missed out number 4. Not easy to remember not say the number, but it helps you to keep your composure if you do make a mistake. Just pretend it didn’t happen and pick up the sequence when you can. This way you learn not to highlight any errors that may be made when singing in a concert.
If you don’t make it obvious, no one will notice (apart from Eamonn!)
Let's unchain this Melody and set it free!
We revisited Unchained Melody and went over the part from the key change. Sops. especially, be ready for the high note on ‘mine’. Know it is coming and be prepared. You’ve already sung the same note previously with ‘do so’
Keep ‘touch’ and ‘much’ fairly short. After a little practise they were fabulous!
God Only Knows when we arrived at the Do, do do and Ba ba ba section it was disastrous to begin with. However, we had done our homework and with a little extra help from Elliot, we were able to perfect it!
After a well earned break, we came back to The Rose (2024). This is a song written by Amanda McBroom. Bette Midler made the song famous when she recorded it for her 1979 film The Rose, in which it plays during the closing credits.
However, the song was not written for the movie: Amanda McBroom wrote it in 1977 or 1978, and I sang it occasionally in clubs. She believes the song struck a universal nerve because it's a message of hope that's very easily understandable.
There are other versions sung by Westlife, The Dubliners and The Hothouse Flowers as well as
The King’s Singers who performed an amazing a cappella version of The Rose
In our version, the Sops start, but with very little accompaniment underneath they are very exposed, so it is important to listen to each other and keep together.
The middle section crescendos to very loud and then immediately goes to very, very quiet. Be prepared for this great contrast. When it does get quiet, the tempo doesn’t change, so don’t slow down.
Allie Sherlock's voice is just timeless! We finished by tightening up The House of the Rising Sun, by just going through the tricky parts this little bit of practise put us in a good place with it.
Some good work was done and next week we can impress Eamonn with all we have learned and we will iron out any areas where Tenors and Basses sing. Beware, basses, you may not always have the tune!
Trillers on a Perch
The Moonwalkers- Sue Jensen
Showing at the “Lightroom” in Kings Cross.
I enjoyed this spectacular immersive voyage to the moon.
I felt quite emotional afterwards.
Tom Hanks co-wrote and narrates this epic experience that offers a unique new experience on humankind's past and voyages to the moon. Telling the stories of the Apollo missions in intimate detail.
There are newly filmed interviews between Hanks and the astronauts of the current Artemis programme providing an insight into the return of the crewed surface missions by going behind the scenes of the Artemis programme. Lightroom's powerful projection and audio technology will transform the immense space into vehicle for a spectacular immersive voyager to our closest neighbour.
First Moon Walk
It was good to see Elliot back to take charge for the next two weeks.
Eamonn has set him a real challenge to teach us the intricacies of God Only Knows and Unchained Melody.
However, we began with the simpler You’ve Got a Friend that we started last week. This wasn’t in bad shape and learned all the notes through to the end and then put in some dynamics to make it sound more interesting. The contrast between the very soft and loud in the right places will make all the difference.
God Only Knows followed. It is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1966 album Pet Sounds. Written by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher, it is a baroque-style love song distinguished for its harmonic innovation and complexity, its unusual instrumentation, and its subversion of typical popular music conventions, both lyrically and musically. It is often praised as one of the greatest songs of all time and as the Beach Boys' finest record.
Lyrically, the words are expressed from the perspective of a narrator who asserts that life without their lover could only be fathomed by God—an entity that had been considered taboo to name in the title or lyric of a pop song.
At 12:30 on 10 March 1966 God Only Knows began recording. It took 22 takes until the recording was finished at 04:30 the following morning.
I think it will take more than that for us to get this complex song perfected!
The first part was fairly simple with the Sops and Basses starting the verses, followed by the Altos and Tenors.
Then we hit the brick wall – Ooh, Ohhs, Do do, dos and Ba ba bas.
All sung at different times weaving in and out of each other.
Definitely homework for this one!
Listen to your particular part in Dropbox and learn it.
Once you know your notes (in the right order), try singing them against another voice part or the full version to put them into context.
The ending won’t seem quite so confusing as at least there are words to sing!
Think of the round we sang in a warm up the other week (Hey ho nobody’s home…’) and it is similar. Each voice part has their own words with the Basses starting us off, followed by the Tenors, then the Altos and finally the Sops. Just keep repeating your phrase until you are instructed to stop!
A well earned break and back to Unchained Melody. In 1954, Alex North was contracted to compose the score for the prison film Unchained (released in 1955). North had a melody he had written in the 1930s and composed and recorded the score when he was asked to write a song based upon the movie's theme. North asked Hy Zaret to write the lyrics.
And then the Righteous Brothers recording came along and achieved a second round of great popularity when featured in the film Ghost in 1990 and it still brings a tear.
It has since become a classic and one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century.
The Sops start us off and it is important for everyone to keep the vowels long and no sliding!
We went through it all until the big key change.
A little more homework – check out your first note after this key change!
We’ll be going through it again next week, as well looking at The Rose (remember to print out the new 2024 version) and revisiting The House of the Rising Sun.
God Only Knows what will happen when we do that again next week!
Trillers on the Perch
DIVA, showing until April 10th 2024
Hello fellow Trillers! I’m not sure if I have spoken to everyone yet, my name is Ellie, and I joined the Sop 1s in September 2023
To summarise the exhibition and with a description taken from the V&A’s website, “DIVA celebrates the power and creativity of iconic performers, exploring and redefining the role of 'diva' and how this has been subverted or embraced over time across opera, stage, popular music, and film”.
This immersive exhibition was a joy to both my eyes and my ears. You are given a headset upon arrival that can determine which display you are looking at and plays the relevant soundtrack. I can only imagine the technology involved in this, far from a gimmick, it made the exhibition unforgettable.
I left feeling empowered, inspired and dare I say in touch with my inner diva...? Look out for some extra sparkle in my summer concert attire (sorry in advance Jan).
The details are as follows:https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/diva?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqbba14CZhAMV9JJQBh1_PQVuEAAYASAAEgLL0PD_BwE&gad_source=1&src=google_ads_paid_diva_pmax
Singing in a Choir is fun.
There are so many benefits to being in a choir, but they all are possible because it’s fun. A sense of humour, maybe this is the most important aspect of all. Keep smiling when the person next to you keeps singing the wrong note, loudly. Smile, when Eamonn points out that someone (usually me, ) for the umpteenth time is singing the tune when they should be singing the harmonies. We are a community of people who are making new friends, singing and having fun, together. We return every week to rehearse and enjoy everything else that singing with In Flagrante brings. Carol and Pauline